Grape expectations

Wine: the nectar of the Gods, the world’s most effective conversation starter and a simple pleasure shared by millions around the globe.

It’s also the reason up-and-coming celebrity wine buff Matt Skinner wound up enjoying a leisurely gourmet lunch in the crisp Asian air in the shadow of the Great Wall of China, accompanied by his best mate and a film crew.

At just 33, the Melbourne-based sommelier has sniffed, swirled and spat his way around the globe and is perched on the cusp of stardom.

Best known for penning numerous “wine bibles” (The Juice, Heard it Through the Grapevine, Thirsty Work), Matt will feature in a new documentary with his best mate of 20 years, celebrity chef Tobie Puttock. The show is aptly titled Tobie& Matt: Asia.

The four-part food and wine series, filmed last March in front of a backdrop of breathtaking Asian monuments, begins on Monday on Foxtel and Austar.

In the spirit of their good mate Jamie Oliver’s hit TV show, and fresh off the back of their last series shot in Europe, the duo explore the sights, history, cuisine and surprisingly robust Asian wine market of China and Thailand, bumping into a few expat Aussie chefs along the way.

It’s a dream come true for Matt, who’s won praise for his refreshing take on the industry and has a knack for making wine simple.

As he puts it: “I think where I might strike a chord is I don’t wear a bow tie, I don’t have a bad comb-over and I don’t speak in another language.”

Unlike many sommeliers who were “born into” the niche profession, Matt stumbled upon his life’s passion entirely by accident when he was 17. His first boss, a suburban bottle shop owner, sent him off to study an introduction to wine course.

“No one sets out to intentionally have a career in wine,” he laughs.

“I was the youngest in the class by a million miles but, for the first time in my life, I sat up the front and listened to every word.

“Suddenly, I found fascinating all the things I hadn’t paid attention to in school – history, geography, science. It’s not just about what’s in the bottle.

“I left the course really fired up about wanting to learn more.”

Fast-forward to 2002 and Matt got his big break with an invitation from Jamie Oliver to teach wine knowledge at his restaurant, Fifteen.

Tobie met Jamie Oliver first in 1998 while working at the famed River Cafe. When Jamie was researching Return of the Naked Chef in Melbourne in 2001, he invited the boys to have dinner with him and watch his cooking demonstration on Good Food Show.

“We went out the front and watched the show and couldn’t believe the electricity and the passion but also the response from the people who were watching as well.”

It was Jamie’s fervour that inspired Tobie and Matt to join the revolution of young spunky male chefs on a crusade to make good food and good wine accessible to everyone.

“I think Jamie and Gordon Ramsay have got a lot to do with that,” Matt muses. “If you went round to most single bachelors’ places you’d find a copy of either one of those guys’ books.

“It’s really encouraging when they tackle food and realise it’s not as difficult as it’s first thought to be and then the logical follow-on is wine. This is where the barriers are being broken down. The younger generation are happy to find out why things taste the way they do.”

While their culinary mastery and relaxed banter on camera appears faultless, the series wasn’t without an extensive bloopers reel.

“It’d be littered with swearing – so much of it was just us stuffing things up.

“It certainly wasn’t seamless and what’s funny is when you get two people who know each other really well they have got their own sense of humour. So it can be really funny for a little while but, after 48 hours, all the crew thought we were just the most annoying people on the planet.”

While there are plans to film a third series in America or South America, for now Matt is back to researching his books.

A typical day may involve tasting up to 150 wines. So how does he manage to stay sober?

“There’s a huge amount of spitting out,” he says. “There is rarely a day that goes by where I don’t drink but I’m not drinking in the normal sense of it.

“If I’m tasting, a small amount will be five to 10 wines a day. On a bad day, I taste anywhere up to 150.

“I rarely, if ever, get drunk on wine. Subconsciously I have got some switch where it’s work and I don’t abuse it.”

And while most of us enjoy unwinding at the end of a tough day with a glass of vino, Matt couldn’t think of anything worse.

“Coffee is what I start the day with and beer is what I finish with – I’m normal!”

In case you’re wondering, yes, he can cook – something he’s inherited from years of watching chefs work their magic.